Homeschool Review: Time4Learning Part 1

As I said in my disclosure, we've been given the opportunity to try out Time4Learning for a month. When we've had a spare minute, I've been having the boys give Time4Learning a go. So far, we like it. Our official school year doesn't start until Monday (August 5) and from there they will be using it daily for a couple weeks. I'll check back in with a full review soon. But for now, here are few pics and notes.

Bailey (7th Grade) trying out Time4Learning.

Dalton (3rd Grade) trying out Time4Learning.

It is really quite hard to get a photo of the screen and the kids both in full color. Either the screen is blown out or the kids are super dark. So I had to settle for taking some both ways. Above are the boys in action, below are a few screen shots.

As you can see, the graphics are great. 

 There is nothing dull or boring in the Language Arts section. Both of my boys are loving it.

 Getting them to try Time4Learning hasn't been a struggle at all as it holds their attention. It is not only educational, but entertaining.

The only thing that I've had trouble with so far was figuring out how to turn in Bailey's (7th Grade) assignment in the Odyssey Writer. It had the option to turn the assignment in, he clicked it and it gave him a bunch of names of teachers, but we had no clue which one we were to send it to. When I emailed customer service they got back to me really quickly. This was the reply:

"Hi Alana,

Thank you for contacting us.

In order for a writing assignment to mark as complete, it must be handed in. Students can hand in finished projects by clicking on the last icon in the orange toolbar that indicates a hand holding a piece of paper. A screen will appear that asks which teacher the child would like to hand the assignment into. Any teacher can be selected, this simply marks it as complete. Grading is the responsibility of the parent. The child will scroll down and click send at the bottom of the screen. 

Parents are responsible for the actual grading of a child’s writing assignment. To access the finished, work go into the recent work of the progress reports and click on the hyper-linked N/A  next to the name of the lesson. By clicking on the checkmark icon, a rubric will appear that gives descriptions of how to grade a sample, based on the areas of content, idea development, voice, and conventions. Parents can then print out the work and write the grade on it for keeping in your paper portfolio. Please note that you will not be able to save the grade in the online reports section.

Hope this helps!

Thank You,

 Time4Learning.com Customer Service"

We haven't made it through all the sections (courses) available just yet. But we will. If I had to give you a yay or nay at this point, I'd say Yay!

Continue to read PART 2 of this review.